David Huron
Canadian University Music Society Conference, 1993.
Over the past decade, psychological research has made notable strides in identifying some of the perceptual and cognitive factors underlying a variety of musical practices. In this presentation, the traditional rules of voice-leading in Western music are elucidated using empirically-established perceptual principles. Six core principles are shown to account for the majority of traditional rules of voice-leading given in music theory texts. These principles include: the tonalness principle (Parncutt, Terhardt), the principle of dissonant spread (Plomp & Levelt), the principle of tonal fusion (DeWitt & Crowder), the pitch proximity principle (Miller & Heise), and the pitch co-modulation principle (McAdams).
These principles are treated as axioms in a formal system from which the traditional rules of voice-leading are then derived. All of the major rules of voice-leading can be derived -- including the injunction to avoid doubling the leading-tone, and the injunction that, when approaching an octave by similar motion, it is best to ensure that one part moves by diatonic step. In the process of the derivation, several novel rules arise that are not found in treatises on voice-leading. For these novel rules, a computer-based analysis of scores shows that composers do indeed write in a manner consistent with these additional rules.
In addition to the core perceptual principles, five auxiliary principles are described. These auxiliary principles are occasionally linked to voice-leading practice and so may be regarded as compositional "options" that shape the music-making in perceptually unique ways. In particular, the choice of perceptual goals leads to widely different musical textures -- from Baroque polyphony and classical homophony to barbershop quartet writing and non-western heterophony. Although music cannot be reduced to perceptual principles alone, known perceptual phenomena appear to play a major role in distinguishing various musical genres.
Full Text from 2000.